823 



-47- 



tne date at which issues become serious. The adequacy of international 

 political machinery is likely to be a fundamental question of international 

 security, for so many of the functions the world (and the U.S.) depends on 

 will Increasingly be the responsibility of some form of international 

 organization (coiranuni cations, transport, nuclear materials control, resource 

 information, health, agriculture, ocean minerals, to say nothing of 

 international financing and lending). Many of the issues are North/South in 

 Character; but others involve East/West controversies and conflicts of 

 Interest among Western industrial countries. 



It is not a matter of indifference whether the organizations exist or not, 

 or work or not. The functions they perform must be carried out in some way by 

 an organization, or by a limited number of countries, or by a country acting 

 on its own. The ultimate character of the international system and the place 

 of the U.S. in it may in large measure be determined by whether these 

 international tasks are carried out through organizations with broad 

 participation, but so designed as to allow reasonable efficiency, or by 

 default are managed by efficient but limited groups of wealthy countries. 



IV. Conclusion 



It may not be too far wrong to characterize this last issue, and all that 

 have been touched on in this paper, as fundamental choices in the 

 international system between efficiency and equity, and between hegemony and 

 consensus. Those are sufficient for any political agenda. 



